Film and Discussion: The Occupation of the American MindTuesday, February 20 @ 7pm

Madison Central Library, 201 W. Mifflin Street, MadisonJewish Voice for Peace-Madison presents a showing of the film The Occupation of the American Mind. Co-sponsored by Madison-Rafah Sister City Project and American Friends Service Committee of Madison. Free and open to the public.

Film Description: Israel's ongoing military occupation of Palestinian territory and its repeated invasions of the Gaza strip have triggered a fierce backlash against Israeli policies virtually everywhere in the world — except the United States. The Occupation of the American Mind takes an eye-opening look at this critical exception, zeroing in on pro-Israel public relations efforts within the U.S. Narrated by Roger Waters and featuring leading observers of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, the film explores how the Israeli government, the U.S. government, and the pro-Israel lobby have joined forces, often with very different motives, to shape American media coverage of the conflict in Israel's favor.

The Occupation of the American Mind provides a sweeping analysis of Israel's decades-long battle for the hearts, minds, and tax dollars of the American people — a battle that has only intensified over the past few years in the face of widening international condemnation of Israel's increasingly right-wing policies. (Trailer and Website here) For details and updates check Jewish Voice for Peace Madison.

UNA Dane County board members recently met with Emmanuella Langsi, who spent 6 weeks at UW-Madison through the Mandela Washington Fellowship program. Ms. Langsi works as a Child Protection Officer with the UN Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic

3rd Annual Unity Picnic - June 22nd, 2017.

Join Urban League of Greater Madison for our Unity Picnic! This is a family friendly event with food, music, dance, face painting, and more! Exact event schedule and entertainment line-up will be shared as the event grows closer. The event is held on the grounds of The Village on Park.

You are invited to Madison's annual Rachel Corrie commemoration:Dessert and an Eye-Witness ReportFeaturing a presentation by Cassandra Dixon, just returned from volunteering with Operation Dove in the South Hebron Hills, Palestine​Sunday, April 3, 7 pmChrist Presbyterian Church944 East Gorham Street, Madison WI

Free and open to the public; beverages and desserts including baklawa will be served. Donations will help build a playground at the Qurtuba School in Tel Rumeida, Hebron.

March 16, 2016 marks 13 years since an Israeli soldier bulldozed 23-year-old American peace activist Rachel Corrie to death as she protested the demolition of a family home in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Palestine. Each year at this time, the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project (MRSCP) honors Rachel’s memory with an event that benefits Palestinian children.

This year, Cassandra Dixon will give an eye-witness report with slides & video about the non-violent people’s resistance in the South Hebron Hills, including the role of the international protective presence for shepherds, who graze Palestinian land near violent settler outposts, and children, who must travel a harrowing gauntlet of settler intimidation to reach their schools. Join us to hear these stories, and to learn about the Tel Rumeida playground and help us make it a reality.

The event is also scheduled to feature a BRAND NEW shipment of gorgeous many-colored kufiyahs from Hirbawi Textiles and beautiful earrings from the Hebron Women’s Co-op. AND we’ll have olive oil and zaatar tasting; Holy Land Olive Oil will be on sale.

Note: If possible, please RSVP to Donna Wallbaum at dwallbaum@gmail.com by Friday, April 1 so that we will be sure to have enough food. Co-sponsored by: Madison Rafah Sister City Project; Playgrounds for Palestine-Madison; Mary House of Hospitality; Christ Presbyterian Middle East Action Team; and American Friends Service Committee of the Madison Friends Meeting

"From Auschwitz to International Law andInternational Human Rights"Judge Thomas BuergenthalLobingier Professor of Comparative Law & Jurisprudence, George Washington UniversityFormer Judge, International Court of Justice Former President, Inter-American Court of Human Rights

About Judge Buergenthal:Thomas Buergenthal joined the George Washington University Law School faculty in 1989. In 2000, he was elected to the International Court of Justice in The Hague, The Netherlands, where he served for a decade. Professor Buergenthal returned to the Law School in the fall of 2010. Professor Buergenthal came to the United States at the age of 17. He spent the first 11 years of his life in various German camps and is one of the youngest survivors of the Auschwitz and Sachsenhausen concentration camps. He graduated from Bethany College in West Virginia and New York University Law School, where he was a Root-Tilden Scholar, and received his LL.M. and S.J.D. degrees in International Law from Harvard University. His long academic career includes service as Dean of Washington College of Law at American University and endowed professorships at the University of Texas and Emory University, where he was also the Director of the Human Rights Program of the Carter Center. He is the author or co-author of more than a dozen books, including A Lucky Child: A Memoir of Surviving Auschwitz as a Young Boy, and numerous articles in scholarly journals. Professor Buergenthal serves on the editorial boards of various legal journals, including the American Journal of International Law and the Human Rights Law Journal. Considered one of the world’s leading international human rights experts, Professor Buergenthal was a Judge and President of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights as well as President of the Administrative Tribunal of the Inter-American Development Bank. He was a member of the UN Human Rights Committee and the UN Truth Commission for El Salvador. He is a member of the Ethics Commission of the International Olympic Committee and the honorary president of the Inter-American Institute of Human Rights in San José, Costa Rica. Professor Buergenthal is the recipient of many prizes and awards including the Manley O. Hudson Medal of the American Society of International Law, the Gruber Foundation International Justice Prize, and the Goler Butcher Human Rights Prize. His honorary degrees include doctorates from the University of Heidelberg in Germany, the Free University of Brussels in Belgium, the State University of New York, the American University, the University of Minnesota, and the George Washington University. Judge Buergenthal served as honorary president of the American Society of International Law from 2001 until 2009.

"Life Is Waiting: Referendum and Resistance in Western Sahara"On Wednesday, November 18th at 7:00 p.m.-8:45 p.m (The Marquee Theater, Union South)

​WE International is partnering with, AIESEC Madison, an international exchange student organization, to present a free showing of the inspirational film, "Life Is Waiting: Referendum and Resistance in Western Sahara". This film brings to light the injustice faced by the people of Western Sahara, Africa's last colony. They will follow the film with a Q&A about the current conditions in Western Sahara with the founder and Director of WE International, David Lippiatt.

CO-SPONSORS: Madison Area Peace Coalition; Pax Christi-Madison; Physicians for Social Responsibility–Wisconsin; United Nations Assoc. of Dane County; The Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice; andVeterans for Peace–MadisonCom﻿memorating 70 YEARS since the bombings of Hiroshima andNagasaki﻿

﻿An opportunity for people of all ages to remember those who have died by the use of nuclear weapons in war, and to reflect on visions of a peaceful world.

• Make and float a lantern for peace • Add your name to a community petition to Congress • Lend your voice to a peace song sing-along!﻿FOR MORE INFORMATION: www.psr.org/chapters/wisconsin/ Phone: 608/232-9945

Each of Wisconsin’s recent U.S. Ambassadors, Mark Green (Tanzania), Richard Graber (Czech Republic) and Tom Loftus (Norway) (Invited) will speak about the tensions, challenges and satisfactions of leading a U.S. diplomatic presence in an important country. Each country has distinctly different set of circumstances from the others although each shares interests and resources that are common to many other countries. This will be a broad survey of how U.S. foreign policy is actually conducted on the ground. Our guests are also invited to give their thoughts on current hot issues facing the U.S. in its relations with the rest of the world – Mid-East tensions, global humanitarian crises, rising China, expansion of the influence of NATO and other western institutions.Agenda: Madison Club, Roosevelt Reading Room, 5 E Wilson Street, Madison WI5:30 pm - Doors open for registration and hors d'oeuvres6:00 pm - PresentationTo Register:Register Here

For Both the People and Wildlife:How Will the World Meet the Threats To the Mekong River Basin?Dr. Ian Baird, UW Madison Assistant Professor of GeographyDr. Tran Triet, Director of the Southeast Asian Program at the International Crane FoundationWednesday, December 10, 2014University Club, 803 State Street, Madison WI

The Mekong River spans six countries including China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. It supports the largest inland fishery in the world, with 60 million people living in the lower Mekong Basin, where 80 percent rely directly on the river system for their food and livelihoods. The Basin has eco-regions with an incredibly high diversity of habitats.These globally unique landscapes are home to no fewer than 20,000 species of plants, 1,200 bird species, 800 species of reptiles and amphibians, 600 fish species, and 430 mammal species.The largest threat to the conservation values of the river system is from the series of dams and other hydropower projects planned for the river’s mainstream and tributaries. Such impacts on river ecosystems would have flow-on effects to dependent communities and economies. These impacts are expected to include a growing inequality in the lower Mekong Basin countries and an increase in poverty in the short and medium term, especially among the poor in rural and urban riparian areas. Food security is also likely to be affected by reductions in fisheries production and impacts on agricultural productivity due to inundation and changed water levels, and likely changes to access rights for fishers and farmers. Join us as we discuss these vital issues with our experts who work directly in the region. Dr. Ian Baird, UW Madison Assistant Professor of Geography, is currently engaged in research concerning the political ecology of large hydropower dam developments in the Mekong River Basin, with an emphasis on inland fisheries, large-scale economic land concessions/acquisitions and land tenure, and effects on mostly indigenous people in Laos and Cambodia.Dr. Tran Triet, Director of the Southeast Asian Program at the International Crane Foundation, works in Vietnam with Phu My villagers on the Ha Tien – Habitats to Handbags project received the prestigious United Nations Dubai Award and the Equator Prize for impact, sustainability, partnership and community empowerment. Dr. Triet’s creative project combines protecting nearly 6,500 acres of wetlands important for wildlife, including Eastern Sarus Cranes, with developing skills and alternative livelihoods for residents of one of Vietnam’s poorest villages. After six years of implementation, the income of local families increased fivefold, and the number of Sarus Cranes using the Phu My wetland during the dry season grew from 5 to 259 (almost 30% of the known population). He is now working to expand this program from Phu My to Cambodia and to other conservation areas in Vietnam.Agenda: University Club, 803 State Street, Madison WI5:30 pm - Doors open for registration and hors d'oeuvres6:00 pm - Presentation

A Solution for Tibet?

Dr. Lobsang Sangay, prime minister of Tibet's government in exile, will give a free public lecture -- "A Solution for Tibet?" -- on Monday, Dec. 1, at 10 a.m. in the DeLuca Forum, at the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery, 330 North Orchard Street.Dr. Sangay, the first Tibetan to earn a doctorate in law (which he received from Harvard in 2004), was elected in 2011 to serve as the political leader, or "sikyong," of the Tibetan government in exile, based in Dharamshala, India.Dr. Sangay is the political successor to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.UW-Madison Professor Emeritus of Political Science Edward Friedman will introduce Dr. Sangay, who is on a tour of Tibetan communities across the United States and Canada.

The UN: an Insider's View.

Voices for Peace and Justice in the Holy Land

Don’t miss this upcoming conference, “Voices for Peace and Justice in the Holy Land” – November 7-8, at the Pyle Center, 702 Langdon Street, Madison, WI. Hear stories and perspectives of Christian, Muslim, Jewish, and secular writers and activists concerned with peace and justice in Palestine/Israel. Learn ways to work for justice and peace here in the United States, and meet others who share your interest. Sponsored by Friends of Sabeel North America, this event begins with registration at 12n on Friday and goes through 5pm Saturday. There will be plenaries and workshops throughout each day. On Friday evening enjoy a Palestinian dinner and cultural program of poetry and Debke folk dancing. The cost of this event is $85 (full conference) or $50 (for one day). Online registration is available here, or print a pdf registration form to mail in. For more information, visit https://fosnamadisonconference2014.wordpress.com.Friends of Sabeel - North America (FOSNA) is a non-profit, tax-exempt Christian ecumenical organization seeking justice and peace in the Holy Land through non-violence and education. Sabeel, which means “the way” in Arabic, is an international peace movement initiated by Palestinian Christians, who seek a just peace through theological and moral principles and adherence to international law and existing United Nations resolutions. You can learn more about FOSNA and Sabeel at www.fosna.org.